Parametrized braid groups of chevalley groups

We introduce the notion of a braid group parametrized by a ring, which is defined by generators and relations and based on the geometric idea of painted braids. We show that the parametrized braid group is isomorphic to the semi-direct product of the Steinberg group (of the ring) with the classical braid group. The technical heart of the proof is the Pure Braid Lemma, which asserts that certain elements of the parametrized braid group commute with the pure braid group. This first part treats the case of the root system A _n; in the second part we prove a similar theorem for the root system D_n.